Christmas 2011

So December has come and is nearly gone! Christmas came with it. And sadly it has gone too. Here are the pictures that we get to keep to remember our Christmas 2011.

Firstly The last weekend of November found us at the Festival of Trees, a fund raiser for the Primary Children's Hospital in SLC. It is a huge event with so many decorated trees, in every theme you can imagine. Very inspiring! Plus they had gingerbread houses, quilts, wreaths, mantel displays, gift boutiques, and an area for mini trees. My mom and I went and we took Elyssa with us. We were so exhausted by the time we left, but we had a ton of fun.  So that means I had to come home and get our tree up the next day.  We wanted bright colors this year but also some animals. I saw an idea on pinterest that I just knew we needed to make. In early November,we went to our local thrift store and dug through all of the toys to find the little plastic animals. They only charged us $1 for a basket full of them. Then we came home and glittered them and put them away until time to decorate the tree.

 The next thing we did was to make crystal snow flakes. Borax Snow flakes, they were so easy to do and doubled as a science experiment.

  And about that time we had the tree up so we were able to hang them. Our decor is relatively simple and not too involved.

Another idea I found on Pinterest and decided would have sufficient impact with very little work involved. Hanging different lengths of different colored ribbons on our mirror and tying ornaments to them.  And on the same mirror just below the ribbons is my favorite piece.

With our stocking below that. We don't fill our stockings, they are purely for decoration. 

The next weekend My mom and Elyssa and I went to another expo to do some shopping, and just hang out.  We had a lot of fun. and found some nifty, inexpensive gifts. 

Justin and I went to his company Christmas party at the little America Hotel downtown, always a fancy affair, we look forward to having this date night all year. 

 Then there was the night I got to go and take photos for Justin's brother and his family such fun times! 

Then it was on to the cookie baking.... Justin's schedule changed so we had some adjusting to do while he worked nights for a bit. This was the perfect time for me to bake and decorate cookies. Kept me occupied while he was gone in the evenings.

and when it was all said and done I had 10, gallon sized ziplock bags full of cookies. 

Elyssa made a few cookies worth mentioning, 

 Well we have Adam and Eve apparently before the fall...

 And our Chickens made the cut. 

And these cookies I made for a friends who gets to have that long awaited reduction! 

Happy Bra shopping D.A. 

Dixie doodle decided sleeping under the tree was her new favorite thing to do. 

Elyssa made several of these drawings for her brother and aunt and uncle.

Ashton LOVES his!!!  

Christmas Morning, The most beloved gift.....

a rolled up raw hide chewy of course!

And Christmas night, after our movie (Marley and Me)

Time to learn a new song, Deuling banjos.